Biz Break: Microsoft looks at Nook for tablet anchor, Apple falls below $600 again, and a big day for cleantech

Today: Microsoft, playing catch-up in the tablet market, signs a deal with Barnes & Noble for a piece of its Nook business. Also: Apple's (AAPL) falling stock price hurts Nasdaq, S&P, which post losses for month of April; and Bloom and SolarCity have good news.

Microsoft marries Nook in effort to catch up to Apple in tablet market

Microsoft, looking to catch up with Apple in the tablet market in advance of the launch of Windows 8, partnered with Barnes & Noble on Monday in a deal that will link the bookseller's Nook app and e-textbook business with Windows tablets.

Microsoft put $300 million into a spinoff venture for the Nook tablet and college textbook arm of Barnes & Noble for a 17.6 percent stake that puts the value of the venture around $1.7 billion, more than twice as much as the market capitalization of Barnes & Noble at Friday's closing price. Microsoft also guaranteed another $305 million in investments through the next five years.

The deal allows Microsoft to start playing catch-up in the e-books and textbook markets, which Apple and Amazon have so far dominated. For Barnes & Noble, the deal brings more money and major name recognition to continue battling in the white-hot market sector.

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"It's a good strategic deal," McAdams Wright Ragen analyst Sid Parakh told Reuters. "It gets Microsoft in the game for e-readers, and gives them access to a market that has been growing nicely and they've basically sat out of. It also makes Windows 8 a more compelling platform from an e-reader's perspective."

"It gives (Barnes & Noble) a much larger, financially stable partner," Morningstar Equity Research analyst Peter Wahlstrom told the New York Times. "The bricks-and-mortar side of the business is profitable but all that cash goes into investing in digital."

With the new venture -- called Newco for the time being -- Microsoft's previous patent claims against Barnes & Noble and the Nook are dropped, and a Nook app for Windows 8 will be developed. Windows 8, the company's major redesign of its signature operating system that has a significant emphasis on mobile devices, is expected to launch this summer.

The Nook runs on Google's (GOOG) Android OS now, and executives declined to say in interviews Monday whether it will switch to Windows 8 in the future. The Nook app will not be proprietary; Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch said the software will continue to be available for Apple and Android devices.

For investors, the positive news was on the bookseller's side, as an infusion of cash and partnership with Microsoft gave them more hope that Barnes & Noble will survive, unlike former rival Borders. Barnes & Noble stock increased 51.7 percent Monday to close at $20.75; Microsoft shares rose 0.1 percent to close at $32.01.

Apple drops below $600 as indexes that carry it post losses for April

Apple suffered through another steep descent Monday on Wall Street, falling back below $600 a share and taking the Nasdaq along for the fall.

The Cupertino company's share price dipped by $19.02, or 3.1 percent, Monday to close at $584.30, its first closing price lower than $600 since last week's earnings report showed big profit increases and stopped a losing streak for the tech giant's stock. After gaining 48 percent in the first three months of the year, Apple had lost market capitalization in 10 off 11 trading sessions before the earnings report.

Analysts are still positive on the stock, with 45 of 53 analysts tracked by Yahoo (YHOO) Finance rating the stock a "Buy" or "Strong Buy," and giving it a median price target -- the level at which analysts believe investors should sell shares for maximum return -- of $725.

Apple's loss helped drive the Nasdaq down 0.7 percent and the Standard & Poor's 500 down 0.4 percent; the Dow Jones industrial average, which does not include Apple, fell only 0.1 percent on the last day of April.

The Dow was also the only of the three major stock indexes to enjoy an overall rise in April, as the blue-chip index rose a scant 1.59 points for the month. The Nasdaq lost 35.21 points, or 1.1 percent, and the S&P lost 0.8 percent.

Cleantech news: Bloom blooming on East Coast, SolarCity going public

News was better in the cleantech sector, as two Bay Area companies announced major new ventures.

Sunnyvale-based Bloom Energy, a leader in fuel-cell technology, broke ground on a new manufacturing facility in Delaware, as it ramps up its business on the East Coast. A local utility company has signed Bloom's largest deal with an American utility to date, and Bloom says demand in the Eastern United States and Europe gives it the opportunity to expand without hurting its Silicon Valley operations.

Meanwhile, San Mateo solar company SolarCity, which has ties to Tesla founder Elon Musk, announced plans for an initial public offering. The 6-year-old company, which counts Musk as its chairman and is run by two of his cousins, announced that it had filed a draft of its IPO registration paperwork with the SEC late last week.

And the widely watched Standard & Poor's 500 index: Down 5.45, or 0.39 percent, to 1,397.91

Check in weekday afternoons for the 60-Second Business Break, a summary of news from Mercury News staff writers, the Associated Press, Bloomberg News and other wire services. Contact Jeremy C. Owens at 408-920-5876; follow him at Twitter.com/mercbizbreak.